3.1 This section describes the basic structure of the IPC system, as provided for in the Act and the associated Regulations. Later sections explain key concepts and procedures in more detail.
Prescribed Processes and Prescribed Substances
3.2 IPC will apply to all processes in Scotland falling within any descriptions of processes prescribed for the purpose by the Secretary of State. The Secretary of States power of prescribing processes is exercisable by making regulations. The Environmental Protection (Prescribed Processes and Substances) Regulations 1991, S1472, explained in more detail in Chapter 5, list the descriptions of processes to which IPC will apply. The Regulations also provide for the implementation timetable reproduced in Annex A and prescribe the separate set of processes to be subject to air pollution control only. which will be enforced by local authorities.
3.3 These Regulations are in addition the means by which the Secretary of State has prescribed certain substances for particular control under IPC. These substances (which in the Secretary of State's view are the most potentially harmful or polluting when released into the environment) when emitted from prescribed processes are subject to special requirements to ensure that their release to specified environmental media is prevented or (if that is not possible) minimised and rendered harmless. Annex B lists the substances prescribed in the Regulations.
Authorisations
3.4 The Act (section 6) provides that no prescribed process may be operated without an authorisation after the date specified in the regulations for that description of process. The Environmental Protection (Applications, Appeals and Registers) Regulations 1991 S1507 determine the procedures for applying for an authorisation under the system for processes regulated under IPC, the information required, the bodies who -must be consulted and requirements for advertising the application and for placing relevant information in a public register. Chapter 7 below describes these Regulations in more detail.
3.5 The enforcing authority is required either to grant an authorisation, subject to any conditions which the Act requires or empowers it to impose, or to refuse it. It must refuse it if it considers that the applicant will not be able to carry on the process in compliance with the conditions to be included in the authorisation. The Secretary of State has reserve powers to direct it whether or not to grant an authorisation and also may give directions as to the conditions which are or are not to be included.
3.6 In setting the conditions within an authorisation, section 7 of the Act places the enforcing authority under a duty to ensure that certain objectives are met. The conditions should ensure:
3.7 The conditions in the authorisation must ensure that all these various objectives are met. If two separate objectives implied different standards (for example if one implied a tighter limit on a particular release than another) the tighter standard would prevail. In practice this means that the enforcing authority must as a minimum ensure that BATNEEC is achieved, but may in some circumstances need to set more stringent conditions to achieve other section 7 objectives. Specific conditions to fulfil the objectives contained in section 7 of the Act may relate to the method of operation, the training of staff, abatement techniques used to reduce the release of substances etc. Releases will be regulated by conditions explicitly limiting the substances that can be released to the various environmental media, both in terms of their concentration in the releases and the amount of the substances released.
3.8 The enforcing authority has the power to include any other conditions which appear to it to be appropriate.
3.9 It is not possible to cover every eventuality in an authorisation . In addition, therefore, to the specific conditions required to be spelt out in the authorisation, there is an implied condition in every authorisation that operators will use BATNEEC to prevent or, if that is not practicable, to minimise the release of prescribed substances into the medium for which they are prescribed, and to render harmless both any releases of prescribed substances which do occur, and any other releases. This implied condition complements the duty placed on the enforcing authority to require the use of BATNEEC, and applies to all aspects of the process other than those regulated by a specific condition set by the enforcing authority .
3.10 The implied condition is designed to cover the most detailed level of plant design and operation, where only the operator can reasonably be expected to know and understand what the demands of pollution control require in practice. Because of this the Act provides that in any proceedings for an offence of failure to comply with the implied condition the onus of proving that the operator was in fact using BATNEEC (and thus complying with the implied condition) falls on the operator himself.
Transfers of Authorisations
3.11 An authorisation for carrying on a prescribed process may be transferred by the holder to any other person. The Act [section 9) requires the person to whom it is transferred to notify the enforcing authority of that fact within twenty-one days of the transfer. Upon transfer the authorisation will continue to have effect as before, subject to the same conditions.
Consultation and Public Participation
3.12 IPC has been designed to allow a significant degree of public involvement in the decision-making process. In addition to being referred to specific consultees all applications for authorisation with very few exceptions must be advertised locally, and the enforcing authority must consider any representations it receives as a result when determining the application. Consultation and advertisement is also required when a substantial change to the process is contemplated (see Chapter 8). Furthermore, in line with the Government's commitment to public access to environmental information, the Act provides for a system of public registers containing information relating to IPC applications and authorisations, details of any variation or enforcement procedures, and monitoring information. The register and a complete index will be maintained at HMIPI Headquarters in Edinburgh. Copies of that part of the register covering authorised processes in their respective areas will also be placed on registers maintained by each river purification authority and by each district or islands authority. The registers will be available for public inspection free of charge, and copies of individual entries will be available on payment of reasonable charges. There is provision for the protection of information which affects national security, or which is commercially confidential.
3.13 Details of these provisions, including those contained in the Environmental Protection (Applications Appeals and Registers) Regulations 1991 which prescribe the information to be placed on the registers, are in Chapter 9 below.
Variation Procedures
3.14 The Act enables either the enforcing authority or an operator to initiate variation of an authorisation. There are arrangements for consultation and public participation if a proposed alteration is substantial.
3.15 The enforcing authority's power, under section 10 of the Act, to vary an authorisation relates to an important aspect of the concept of BATNEEC: as pollution control techniques and technology improve or the perception of environmental risk changes, so the environmental standards required of industry should be amended .section 4(9) places a duty on the enforcing authority to keep abreast of developments in pollution abatement techniques and technology. The enforcing authority has power to vary the conditions in an authorisation at any time, and is under a duty to do so if the conditions it then. judges appropriate are different from those which the authorisation currently contains. Further, the Act requires that the conditions in each authorisation shall, in any case, be reviewed at least every four years.
3.16 Section 11 of the Act provides for authorisations to be varied at the instigation of the operator. The provisions are designed to cover a wide range of circumstances such as the upgrading and replacement of plant, the introduction of additional -plant, the updating of control practices, changes in feedstock, products, production levels or capacity, and so on. The test is whether the intended change is capable of affecting releases from the process - whether by altering the substances released from the process or affecting the amount or any other characteristic of any substance so released. If so, section 11(11) defines the change as a "relevant change".
3.17 Alternative procedures are provided to give the flexibility to cover the range of circumstances in which industry may need to seek variations. In the general case, where an operator wishes to carry out an alteration to the process, he can notify the enforcing authority of the proposed relevant change, and ask it to determine whether the change would entail a variation in the conditions of the authorisation. If it would the enforcing authority must determine whether it would in fact consider making a variation, and if so what. The operator is free to consider in that light whether he wishes to continue with his planned change. But a simplified procedure is also allowed for where it is clear from the outset either that what the operator wishes is a variation to the conditions themselves, as opposed to a change in the process which might entail such a variation, or that the operator is clear about the variation to the conditions which will be needed as a result of the proposed change.
3.18 The enforcing authority also has the power, under section 7(8) of the Act, to set out conditions in an authorisation requiring operators to notify him of changes in the manner of carrying on a process. This allows a flexible system. It will meet two important criteria - first, allowing industry reasonable freedom to operate without unjustifiable intervention; and second, ensuring that the enforcing authority is informed of proposals to vary the process which might adversely affect releases, or which offer an opportunity to reduce them. The authorisation can be designed so as to allow the operator appropriate latitude to make changes which clearly do not need to be referred, while requiring to notify changes which the enforcing authority has a legitimate need to consider.
3.19 It is not intended that IPC should handicap industry by imposing unnecessary delays or restrictions. Processes involving frequent changes in inputs, throughput and outputs, such as occur in the speciality chemicals industry, need to be able to operate within a regime that provides full environmental control but which allows the changes inherent in the process to take place without bureaucratic delay. Under IPC it will be possible in appropriate cases to define an "envelope" of release limits, tailored to the demands of the process in question, within which the operator will be able to e adjustments without prior approval. The onus will be on the operator to propose and justify such an "envelope" in his application.
3. 20 Chapter 8 explains the variation procedures in more detail.
Enforcement
3.21 The enforcing authority has a number of powers in the Act to enforce the conditions of an authorisation.
3.22 If it believes that an operator is contravening any of the conditions of an authorisation (or is likely to) it may serve an "enforcement notice" on him (under section 13). This will specify the matters constituting (or likely to constitute) the contravention and require specified steps to be taken, in a specified period, to remedy the situation.
3.23 Where the enforcing authority considers that there is an imminent risk of serious pollution - whether or not there has been a breach of the authorisation - it is under a duty to serve a "prohibition notice" (section 14). The notice would specify the risk, the steps which must be taken to remove it and the time by which they must be taken. It would also suspend the authorisation for whatever aspects of the operation were causing the risk; and could in addition impose conditions relating to any part of the process for which the authorisation was not suspended. Guidance for inspectors on what constitutes "an imminent risk of serious pollution" - and indeed on the appropriate circumstances for the service of an enforcement notice - will be issued in due course.
3.24 The enforcing authority also has power (under section 12) to revoke an authorisation by written notice. In particular, it may do so where it has reason to believe that the process for which the authorisation is in force has not been carried on for twelve months. But the Act does not circumscribe the power: the enforcing authority may decide, for example, to revoke an authorisation in cases where there has been persistent failure to comply with conditions.
3.25 In all these cases, the Secretary of State has a reserve power of direction over the enforcing authority.
Appeals
3.26 The Act gives operators a right of appeal to the Secretary of State against:
3.27 An appeal against revocation has the effect of suspending that revocation, but appeals against other notices, or against the conditions of an authorisation, do not have the effect of suspending those notices or conditions. An appeal against a determination that
3.40 The objective of the authorisations issued under Part 1 of the Act is to achieve environmental not worker protection (see section 7(1) of the Act). Full co-operation between the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and their agents on the one hand and the enforcing authority on the other is important to ensure that the controls that each place on scheduled processes are effective and compatible.
3.41 Neither set of controls should adversely affect the protection of the environment or workers. Where environmental protection demands tighter standards of control than are required to safeguard persons at work, these tighter standards should apply provided that they have no adverse effects on worker protection. HSE will be statutory consultees on individual applications.